REVIEW
Fiamma fumana
1.0
Omnium 2001

One of my favorite songs on this techno-folk CD is "Tres Sorelle," an Italian song similar to a waulking song with Scots instrumentation, sung in Italian, in an arrangement inspired by Varttina. The band-electronic complex is from northern Italy, and the album features female vocals and (except for one traditional song) traditional-style songs inspired by and/or about women..."our grandmothers." Arrangements feature both uillean and highland pipes, Scots fiddle, and other Celtic instruments, so that at times the music is so Celtic that only the vocals say "Italian"...interesting because northern Italian music can sound Celtic anyway.

I don't really enjoy synthetic music unless it has huge amounts of ethno- and activity mixed in it to prevent it from being monotonous, vacant, and dehumanized. 1.0 has those huge amounts, and its all well mixed. Actually, my favorite track is the slow theme, "Incantata" which includes slow accordion (one of the core trio, Alberto Cottica, plays accordion), uillean pipes, of course female vocals by another core member, "Fiamma," and neat echoey thudding noises.

Also on the CD is a visual CD-ROM track which is best if you play CDs on your computer instead of negotiating this tangle of wires and equipment I have as a legacy of doing radio, recording shows, and swapping bootlegs of weird and out of print recordings. The visuals do work and replicate the FF web page.

gennett at gorge dot net

The Columbia Gypsy